“In depression, the chemical soup often isn’t right,” says Russell Stambaugh, PhD, a sex therapist in Ann Arbor, Mich., and a spokesman for the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists. “The brain is important for sexuality because of the chemistry, but it’s also important for ideas. It helps how you experience pleasure and how you define it.”

Treat the Depression First

Whatever is happening with your sex life, it's important to treat depression first. Address any sexual side effects later.

Depression is the top cause of disability in the U.S. for people aged 15-44. Men and women struggle equally with sexual problems during depression.

People with chronic depression can experience a loss of desire, take longer to orgasm, and simply find sex less enjoyable.

“The whole process of sexual arousal starts with the ability to anticipate pleasure, which is lost with depression,” says Frederick K. Goodwin, MD, who serves on the scientific council for the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression. “People who are depressed are locked in the moment of their suffering.”

“ Medications can change sexual function,” says J. Michael Bostwick, MD, a psychiatry professor at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. “But it’s a mistake for patients or physicians to immediately assume a difference in sexual function is bad. It’s different, and then you have to figure out if it’s bad or good. In fact, once the depression is treated, they may have a different view about sex altogether.”